“There’s a whole world out there.” The words of a lad from Liverpool during my time there, who would, with support, do volunteer work. He had a learning disability but his work meant that soon he was mentoring other people with learning disabilities to volunteer; he also supported them to do things like using the bus for the first time. He then went on to further education.
The point is that this young man’s potential was released; services removed barriers and he became a resource to his community. An asset, if you like. This is all in line with the Care Act 2014. From April 2015, the act’s provisions come into place. It puts wellbeing at the heart of what matters. As Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, says in our new Guide to integrating mental health personal budgets, the question is changing from “What’s the matter with you?”to “What matters to you?”
In 2015 I’d love one outcome of the Care Act to be seeing people less as passive recipients of social care and more as having potential resources in and for their communities, helping to develop services. As a nation, we’ve perhaps been responsible for undermining people’s continued potential to enjoy and contribute to community life. At the Social Care Institute for Excellence (Scie), where I am chief executive, we call that contribution “co-production”, and although that’s not a new concept, the possibilities for co-production are much wider now the Care Act is coming into force.
For several decades, government at national and local levels has created the very dependence which is now seen as unhealthy for people and their communities; it’s also seen as no longer affordable. “Give us your money and we’ll sort your lives out for you,” is one way of summing up what some have been saying.
It’s a generalisation, but perceived wisdom is that some expect local government to do things that people would simply have got on with in previous eras. Are we bolstering the philosophy that the role of a good citizen worried about a frail older neighbour is to simply call the experts in? I hope not and I feel that this attitude is changing as we start to move to the second half of the decade. At a national level too, there seems to be a reaction against paternalism, with people being encouraged to take more responsibility for their own health, for example.
The good news is that service delivery is less restrictive than 20 years ago, when people were simply assessed as being eligible for a day centre or home care in a pretty standard and impersonal way. In more recent years, heralded by successive governments, the personalisation drive has gained momentum and has the potential to place social care policy and practice in the vanguard of customer-driven public services. So, as we begin 2015, the service user has more choice and control over the services that are right for him or her, backed up by personal budgets, initially for social care and now gaining some early ground in health too.
I often think of that lad in Liverpool, who had the determination and support to do something to improve his life, and to contribute to his community. And it’ll be great if this sort of thing becomes the norm in 2015. The Care Act will now hopefully provide councils with more opportunities to do this, using the co-production of local communities.
Happy new year.
Tony Hunter is chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence. He tweets @TonyHunterscie
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